Trump has repeatedly shown that he will bend in the face of decisive opposition. It’s time to stand firm
Attending Donald Trump’s second inauguration was a culture shock. Where had all the liberals gone? On the ground in Washington, a city that has voted Democrat throughout its modern history, it was as though the local population had gone into hiding. That left Trump’s Maga disciples free to dance in the streets, in bars and at galas across the capital unchallenged. One year on, it seems that those liberals have yet to come out of hiding.
Whatever you might think of the US president, you have to admit that he had a prolific year. Most of us spent it catching our breath as he tested the limits of the country, constitution and world order. This has left Maga conservatives in raptures – finally someone is taking on the system – and pro-democratic liberals in a state of shock. “Exhaustion” is a word that I have heard repeatedly of late. This fatigue has meant that opposition to Trump and his policies (save for a few moments of high-profile resistance, such as the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York’s mayor) has been ineffectual. Protests have been sporadic and the Democratic Party voiceless.
But one year into his second term, it’s no longer about the president’s campaign priorities. Trump had a mandate to enact the America-first, pro-manufacturing, small-government, high-deportation and tariff-heavy agenda that he promised voters. But the White House has strayed well beyond these areas – from severely cutting back on legal migration (and even targeting American citizens) to investigating sitting Democratic politicians. Most notably – from Gaza via Venezuela to Iran and now Greenland – Trump has shifted his foreign policy from the sort of isolationism that his Maga base voted for to a new kind of aggressive interventionism (good news for his hawkish secretary of state, Marco Rubio, but less so for his folksy, small-government vice-president, JD Vance).
It’s the lack of domestic resistance that has prompted him to keep testing these limits. What we have seen time and again this year is that Trump respects strength: he’ll keep pushing until opposition is loud and severe enough that he must make a deal. Look at China, which swiftly enacted powerful counter-tariffs that prompted him to negotiate, or the downward stock-market reactions that repeatedly forced him into an about-face turn. And then there was Mark Carney’s vociferously anti-Trump electoral campaign that, paradoxically, has led to him having better relations with Washington than Justin Trudeau did.
Now, it’s Europe’s turn to decide whether it will continue to coddle the US president on Greenland – for example, the talk of mere “differences” peddled by the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer – or take a more forceful stand that will cause Trump to take notice and step back from his seemingly imperialist tendencies. After all, his security concerns in the Arctic are valid: if he can be persuaded of Europe’s willingness to do what it takes to defend Greenland, he might yet make a deal that avoids a takeover.
Global leaders are learning that fawning over Trump only gets you so far. If the president comes at you directly, you need to stand up and push back to gain his respect. Several US courts have tried this method, halting National Guard deployments in some cities. But Democratic leaders continue to hope that he will self-destruct or that voters will simply have enough of rising consumer prices, rather than articulating a form of resistance that people can get behind.
This is not a uniquely American problem. Left-wing and centrist politicians across the West are struggling to present a plan that can win back voters from the right. Yet there’s an opportunity for change. Some of Trump’s base has turned against him, most Republicans oppose a military takeover of Greenland and a significant group is souring over the increasingly disturbing raids by Ice agents. The US needs a viable opposition to Trump – one that stands for something, not just against.
Christopher Cermak is Monocle’s senior news editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
